PESHAWAR: An official of World Bank’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Capital Investment Project has resigned to protest what he calls rampant corruption, unethical practices, regulatory violations and abuse of authority.

In a letter entitled “resignation with one-month notice-submitted in protest”, Ihsanullah, the social safeguards specialist of KP Human Capital Investment Project (KP-HCIP), wrote to Dr Bilal Khan, the project director, about serious irregularities in the $200 million scheme aimed at improving health and education sectors in the province.

The project, launched in June 2020, was supposed to end in June 2025 but it was extended to December 2026. The official said that the project was fraught with corruption due to which he (Ihsanullah) was resigning in protest.

Working as social safeguards specialist since December 2023, he was required to inform authorities regarding the social impact of the interventions. He has reminded the project director that he has repeatedly raised concerns about these issues with him (Dr Bilal Khan), but no avail.

The $200 million scheme is meant to improve health and education sectors

“Your consistent failure to take corrective action has only reinforced an environment of impunity and collusion,” he said in the letter.

Ihsanullah said that collusion and fraud in the G-3 design and supervision contract and contract awarded to G-3 was a façade because it had no operational presence in the project.

“All correspondence is conducted by ‘Synercon Engineering’, a proxy firm using its own email domain, without any legal justification. The staff list provided by G-3 has never materialised on ground, yet salaries continue to be drawn fraudulently,” he said.

He said that reports submitted in G-3’s name had been drafted internally by HCIP health project management unit (PMU) staff, reportedly for kickbacks, the facts about which the project director was repeatedly informed.

He said that he was threatened by a World Bank consultant with dire consequences when he refused to endorse a falsified stakeholder consultation report.

“The same WB consultant has engaged in grossly unethical behaviour including appointing close family members to key PMU positions and has also unlawfully taken over contractual negotiations with vendors, bypassing procurement norms an issue I reported to your good office multiple times without getting any response from you,” Ihsanullah said in the letter.

He said that the two firms providing janitorial and security services had been repeatedly implicated in financial fraud, sexual misconduct and moral corruption. Despite being reported under previous and current management, those vendors continued to receive impunity-allegedly in return for kickbacks, he alleged.

He said that a favoured admin staff member channelled operational contracts to three front companies, owned by her brother-in-law, at nearly 10 times higher than market rate, in what was clearly massive corruption, a conflict of interests and abuse of position. “The same office assistant has been involved in manipulation of official records including procurement and financial record files and HR/personnel files,” he alleged.

Ihsanullah said that against his clear advice, the office illegally proceeded alongside the office of deputy project director (DPD) and with support from the same WB consultant to extend a bid validity that had lapsed over four months prior in gross violation of procurement law and WB procurement regulations.

“This is an open secret that this project is designed to be awarded to ARAR, who is a business partner of a WB officer and currently the task team leader (TTL) from WB’s side,” he said.

He said that arbitrary shift from concrete to pre-fabricated structures was a deliberate manoeuvre to bypass market rate schedule (MSR) of the provincial government rates, enabling inflated costs and personal enrichment. The office of DPD was actively pushing the agenda despite serious technical objections from within PMU, health department authorities and affected communities, he added.

Ihsanullah said that medicines worth millions of rupees were purchased outside procurement regulation of medicine coordination cell (MCC) of WB and the province. He has offered to share all documentary evidence and detailed information regarding these violations with KP Anti-Corruption Establishment, planning and development department and relevant authorities at World Bank, as part of his responsibility to ensure that public funds are protected and accountability is upheld.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2025